Shotgun tracer cartridge



March 20, 1934. JACKSON -r AL 1,951,794

SHOTGUN TRACER CARTRIDGE Filed June 25, 1932 F/Gl.

Patented Mar. 20, 1 93 45 SHOTGUN TRACER CARTRIDGE Horace Ernest Jackson and Henry Winder Brownsdon, Moseley, Birmingham, England, assignors to Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, a corporation of Great Britain Application .lune 25, 1932, Serial No. 619,300 in Great Britain July 2, 1931 8 Claims.

In shot gun cartridges containing a tracer pellet situated centrally at the base of the shot charge the tracer pellet has hitherto been so positioned by locating it in a central hole in the under 5 shot cardboard disc or thicker obturating wad of felt or other material forming part of the wadding system.

The object of this invention is to provide means for the easy and rapid placing of the tracer ellet centrally at the base of the shot charge without involving any of the wads of the wadding system.

This object is accomplished by our method of centering a tracer pellet at the base of the shot charge in a shot gun cartridge independently of the wedding system, which consists in lightly mounting the pellet in the centre of a support which is adapted just to fit in the cartridge case, and placing the pellet and the support over the 29 wadding system prior to the addition of the shot. The pellet must be only lightly attached to or held by the support, so that when the cartridge is fired the pellet will easily free itself from the support, which is only intended to serve as a means of holding the pellet in the desired position during the loading of the shot charge into the cartridge.

The support may be a piece of paper, or light metal or other suitable light thin material, and in this case, the pellet is lightly attached to the same by means of an adhesive. The support may also be a piece or thin metal or metal gauze or stiff paper or other suitable material, which is pierced centrally to leave protruding tongues of material which hold the pellet. Still another form or support consists in a wire frame in the form of a star, ring or spider.

The tracer pellet may be either of the kind which is ignited by the flame from the powder gases, or of the kind which is ignited by concussion or friction. In the first case, a flametransmitting passage must be provided from the powder to the tracer pellet, the support of which therefore must have a central aperture.

The invention will be better understood by ref erence to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic central section of a complete shot gun cartridge containing a tracer pellet mounted according to the invention. Figure 2 is a plan view of the pellet and the support, and Figures 3, 4 and 5 are plan views of alternative forms of support.

Referring to Figure 1, 1 is the cartridge case, 2 the ignition cap, 3 the powder, 4 the overpowder 55 disc, 5 the driving wad, 6 the undershot disc, and

7 the shot. The discs 4 and 6 and the wad 5 are provided with central perforations as shown. The tracer pellet 8 is mounted upon a thin paper card disc 9, which is also perforated centrally with a hole of smaller diameter than the perforation in the disc 6. As shown in Figure 2, the open end of the pellet 8 rests upon the disc 9, and is lightly attached by means of gum. Figure 3 shows a disc support of thin metal or other suitable material which is pierced centrally by means of a triangular, pyramidal pointed tool, which, when pierced through the middle, leaves 3 protruding tongues 10, which may be used to hold the pellet. Instead of discs as shown in Figures 2 and 3, supports of triangular, rectangular and polyhedral form may be used, in which case the pellet is centered by the corners of the periphery.

Figure 4 shows a support consisting of a wire frame having three arms 11 and a central loop 12 to accommodate the tracer pellet. The loop is of such diameter that the wire presses lightly on the outside of the pellet and holds the same in position. Figure 5 shows a support consisting of a wire ring with a spoke or arm having a ring to hold the pellet.

When a tracer pellet mounted as described above is placed in the cartridge, it is sufficiently firmly held to allow of the shot charge being added and subsequent operations on the cartridge being carried out with out the tracer pellet becoming displaced. The assembly of the cartridges is considerably facilitated by the method of the invention, and the cost of manufacture thereby materially reduced.

As many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to be understood that we do not limit ourselves to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A shot gun cartridge containing a tracer pellet at the base of the shot charge and a support for said pellet, said pellet being lightly connected, independently or" the wedding system, to the centre of said support, the periphery of which is such as to automatically centre the pellet with respect to the cross-section of the cartridge case.

2. A shot gun cartridge as claimed in claim 1, in which the support is a piece of light thin material to which the pellet is lightly attached by means of an adhesive.

3. A shot gun cartridge as claimed in claim 1, in which the support is a piece of material which is pierced centrally to leave protruding tongues of the material which hold the pellet.

4.. A shot gun cartridge as claimed in claim 1, in which the support is a Wire frame.

5. A shot gun cartridge as claimed in claim 1,-

in which the support is a disc of paper by which the pellet is centrally supported by means of an adhesive.-

6. A shot gun cartridge comprising a tracer pellet and a Wire frame centrally supporting said tracer pellet therein, said frame comprising a 

